Veterans' group receives tracked chair from anonymous donor

Gary Wynn of the Arkansas Freedom Fund talks about the features of the Action TrackChair on Tuesday afternoon. A Twin Lakes Area anonymous donor purchased the chair for the organization on behalf of her late husband.(Photo: Scott Liles/The Baxter Bulletin)Buy Photo

A Twin Lakes Area resident has donated a tracked chair to the Arkansas Freedom Fund, which will loan it out to disabled Arkansas veterans wishing to use it to hunt or fish.

The Action TrackChair, purchased from Carlson Mobility of Texas, was displayed by Gary Wynn of the Arkansas Freedom Fund at a news conference at the Vada Shied Community Center on the campus of Arkansas State University-Mountain Home on Tuesday afternoon.

The tracked chair was donated by a widow who wished to honor her late husband, a disabled Air Force veteran. The donor, an Air Force veteran herself, attended Tuesday’s news conference, but asked to remain anonymous.

The tracked chair can hold a fishing rod or a rifle, and can elevate the driver into a standing position if desired. It is the second tracked chair for the Arkansas Freedom Fund, which provides motorized chairs, single-rider golf carts and recumbent bicycles to help the state’s disabled veterans enjoy the outdoors.

“If a veteran can dream it, we want to make it happen,” Wynn said. “A veteran can ask for a piece of equipment, and we’ll drop it off, pick it back up and service the equipment for the next veteran to use.”

The Arkansas Freedom Fund is a 501(c)3 non-profit staffed by volunteers. The organization also has martial arts equipment and 648 acres of hunting land in Calhoun County for veterans wishing to hunt deer, squirrel, rabbit, turkey and hogs.

Dan Hall, commander of the Twin Lakes #30 chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, said the donor first contacted him about five months ago about donating equipment to a veteran.

“The more we got to talking about it, the more the conversation shifted from helping one veteran to the best way to help the most veterans,” Hall said. “This contribution will not be limited to helping a single deserving veteran for a finite duration, but rather will be available for continued use by countless veterans for many years to come.”

Scott Burton, chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, read aloud Tuesday a letter from the lieutenant governor to the chair’s donor.

“Because of your gift, disabled veterans in Arkansas will experience many of the simple pleasures of life that they would otherwise be denied by their disability, such as hunting, fishing or enjoying the great outdoors of the Natural State,” Griffin’s letter reads in part. “It is people like you and generous acts like this that constantly renew our faith in the American spirit.”